Jet had been just as stunned as the other two Rockets when the large, blue wings sprang out from Otomé's back, the force of such pushing her away from the stone wall and luckily forcing Nightmare to break his death grip on her throat. But those wings… Was that why Team Rocket wanted her? Did they mean she was not human, but rather something… Else? No, they explained nothing, rather only filling his racing mind with a million more questions as he swiftly made it to her fallen form in three long bounds.
Crouching down to one knee, he gripped his sword tightly in one hand while reaching out another to the water trainer. But when one of her new feathers brushed his skin, he instantly withdrew his hand, deciding to glare daggers at the blonde behind him instead. Hebi Oni's maniacal laughter was getting on his nerves, too. What the hell was so damn funny about the situation?!
"I git it!" The brunette announced between her bouts of insane mirth. "I git it now! That's why! I thought y'all had given up on that project! Nightmare! Still hurt by what Tuusun did, huh?"
"Shut up, you traitor!" The blonde Executive hissed poisonously at his cheery junior.
"An' they say that women are the bitter ones!"
Now the dragon trainer was glaring at both Rockets. What in the seven hells were they talking about?! What project? Who the hell was this Tuusun fellow? How had he scorned Nightmare? And why the hell did that blonde bastard feel the need to take it out on the poor girl at his feet?! But when said girl groaned painfully, her sputtering and coughing now having ceased for the most part, his attention was drawn to her instead.
"Otomé…" Gingerly, he reached out a hand again, gently (or perhaps reluctantly?) placing it on one of her tanned shoulders. "Otomé… Are you alright? Can you stand? Or even speak?"
It felt strange to see her bright eyes look up to him and suddenly fill with relief, a weak, silent smile curling her lips slightly. Was she happy to see him? Him? No, that wasn't it. She was probably just happy about being able to breathe again. No one was ever happy to see him. And had the boy not sensed the compression of air behind him, he would've told himself so when Otomé's look changed from one of mitigation to one of fear and terror.
Still crouched, Jet whirled around on a single foot, growling in annoyance as he was required to look almost directly up to glare at the towering blonde before him. Now having recovered his wits, Nightmare sported a pair of long daggers with ridged blades, one in each hand. Though technically out-numbered, he would still not give up on his endeavor to murder his prey that morning, would he?
"Out of my way, boy," The blonde Executive ordered darkly.
"Fuck off!" The male teenager spat rebelliously in reply. "You're not getting her unless you want to die!"
"Fine," The older man admitted as he narrowed his blazing eyes. "I'll kill you first." But he remained rooted to his place, not daring to strike, when there was a metallic clink and Hebi Oni interjected.
"Actually, the idiot's right, you know."
Once again, her strange accent was gone, now replaced with a more cosmopolitan voice. "Though I really don't need a reason to kill you, actually having a valid one makes me look better and doesn't cast as much suspicion…"
Smirking wickedly, the brunette had a scratched, yet still gleaming, .45 silver Colt pistol pointed directly at her fellow Executive. For seconds that dragged on like hours, all four of them were silent; Jet confused, Nightmare indignant, Hebi Oni smug, and Otomé unable to speak even if she wanted to. But then as the sound of several pairs of running feet, as well as feminine grumbling, reached their ears, all attention shifted to the only entrance and exit of the clammy dungeon, which was then soon filled with dark-clad Rocket Grunts led by a voluptuous redheaded woman in a black, strapless dress and matching high heels
Halting a few feet from the doorway she had entered with the recruits waiting behind her on the staircase, she started tapping a petite foot as she glowered at the scene before her.
"What the hell is going on here?!" She demanded in a high, lofty voice, dark eyes darting from Hebi Oni, to Nightmare, to Otomé and Jet, then back to Hebi Oni.
"Ah, Lorwave!" The brunette Executive greeted as though nothing were wrong with having a loaded gun pointed at one of her peers. "I was takin' a break when I heard a scream from down here. I rushed ta checkit out and what do I find? Nightmare disobeyin' the Boss's orders ta leave the girl there alone." Her accent was back.
Still glaring, Lorwave turned her hard gaze to the blonde, who looked ready to kill his fox-eared junior.
"The Boss told you to stay away from Dream for a reason, you know," She informed him.
"Oh? For what?" He shot back in a challenging manner. "She's still a failure! She's not any different from the disgrace Tuusun first created!"
"That may be so, but she is still Dream and perhaps her flaws can be fixed…"
Great. The silver-haired teenager gripped the hilt of his thin sword again. He had no idea what the hell these crazy Rockets were talking about or how it applied to Otomé, but he didn't need to comprehend their inside information in order to figure out that the situation did not look good for him or the girl. There was no way to escape and surely even he could not fight while so heavily out-numbered.
He growled fiercely and got to his feet when Lorwave ordered a good number of the Grunts to surround "the intruder and Dream", also pulling the still mute water trainer up with him. Dumb Espeon. This was all her fault. She had purposely delivered him—no, both of them—into the hands of the enemy, hadn't she?! No matter. He would fight. He wouldn't let them have their way.
Though while no one was paying attention to her, Hebi Oni stowed away her gun and noiselessly took a few steps back, allowing herself to be swallowed up by the crowd of lowly Grunts as she grinned wickedly. She couldn't let them have their way, either.
Seconds later, before any blows could be exchanged, the brunette suddenly shouted in worried surprise, "No! Psyche! Don't! Get back here!"
All attention was on her now as she pushed back through the Grunts in pursuit of her Hypno, who had somehow freed itself from its Great Ball and was now teleporting hither and thither around the spacious, one-roomed dungeon in an attempt to evade its mistress. When it reappeared behind Otomé and Jet, though, all the Rockets—with the unnoticeable exception of Hebi Oni herself—tensed. That damned psychic wouldn't… It wouldn't dare…
Chuckling in a high-pitched voice, the golden creature suddenly began to chant and swing the circular pendant attached to a string it always carried.
"Hyp… No… Hyp… No… Hyp… No…"
When it noticed the many eyes of the entranced crowd begin to droop, the Hypno chuckled again before closing its own eyes, seemingly concentrating for a moment. Suddenly, with a soft popping sound, a limp and most likely knocked-out Omi was draped upon Otomé's head like a living, furry veil. And before any of the ebony-clad Rockets could shake off their stupor and realize what was happening, Psyche chuckled again, and the four of them—it, the two teenagers, and the Espeon—vanished in the blink of an eye, Hebi Oni's own malicious chuckle replacing that of her errant Pokémon's.
If he hadn't known any better, Jet could've sworn that it had just been a bad dream. That that blasted storm had never started and that he and Otomé had never argued and that she had never been kidnapped and almost killed and suddenly grew wings. Such a lie seemed more believable when he abruptly awoke to a dark, lonely room, his sprawled-out form on the neatly made bed the only occupant. Though almost regrettably, this notion was shattered when he felt something in his hand and looked over to see that he was still clutching his unsheathed sword.
No, it had all been painfully real. So then where was the blue-haired teenager?
Letting go of his weapon and careless of the hallow, clunking noise it produced when it landed on the varnished wooden floor below, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, standing just as he felt a slight weight press down gently against the top of his head.
"I see you are awake finally…"
Hissing, he made a quick grab for the Espeon, aiming for her throat so he could hurl her across the room like she deserved, but like lightning the damn thing teleported away again before his hands could reach her, reappearing a moment later on the slender nightstand that was placed to the right of the now wrinkled bed.
"What the hell happened?! Where's Otomé?!"
As if knowing he would demand those answers, Omi closed her large eyes and dipped her tiny head once.
"Hebi Oni saved us. Her Hypno teleported us to Cinnabar Island, and once I had regained my senses, I teleported us back to Blackthorn. Otomé is resting in her room on the floor above us."
Determined to not let the relief he felt at hearing that the girl was fine and safe show, the dragon trainer continued to coldly grill the cat for explanations.
"I meant back in Viridian! With that teleport into the Gym! What the fuck did you do?! Fall asleep?!"
Her tail swished sharply at such an accusation. Opening her eyes, Omi dared to boldly lock chilly glares with the boy before her.
"No. Nightmare had still been expecting us, so halfway through the teleport he started blocking my powers. I barely managed to send you away before he blocked them completely, or else you would've ended up with me." Her usually monotone voice was held a touch of insult.
Though still convinced that the psychic cat had sent him head-first into a snack machine purposely, the teenager simply growled at the answer she gave and allowed a moment of silence to come between them before then demanding to know why Otomé had sprouted wings, why Nightmare wanted to kill her, who Tuusun was, what Nightmare had meant when he called the girl he was killing a failure, why everyone had-
"Slow down," The Eeveelution suddenly interrupted, bowing her head and shaking it as though hearing his list of questions made her dizzy. "One question at a time."
"Fine," He agreed gruffly, sinking back down onto the edge of the bed and crossing his arms. "Why does Otomé have wings? What the hell is she?"
Wearily, Omi exhaled deeply, her head still hung as though she wished she didn't have to give such an answer. After another quiet pause, Jet growled impatiently and was about to demand a reply again when the cat finally lifted her head and looked over to him.
"She is not fully human, I will say now."
"'Not fully'? So she's still some human?"
"Yes. She, in fact, is exactly like Hebi Oni; a Pokémorph and a cleverly disguised one at that." But this revelation made little impression in the dragon trainer's mind. Watching him blink and frown cluelessly, the Espeon sighed again and elaborated.
"A Pokémorph is a human with Pokémon DNA in them. Hebi Oni is a Ninetalesmorph, as a big majority of her DNA is made up of the DNA of a Ninetales."
It took a few seconds for the boy to wrap his head around this alien concept, but once he had, he inquired, "So what's Otomé?" He had to growl again when Omi became reluctant to say for a second time.
"Let me… Let me explain what she is entirely first…"
"Then do so!" Dumb cat. Did she have to stall so much?
"Otomé… Is a genetic experiment, commissioned of my late mistress sixteen years ago by the Boss of Team Rocket." She spoke slowly, her advanced mind dashing a mile a minute as she calculated just how much of her vast amount of knowledge on such a subject she should divulge to someone who could really be considered nothing more than a stranger.
"The Boss was angry that his original weapon, a clone of the legendary Mew, had become self-aware and rebelled. He had spent a large amount of money in creating it and you can bet that once it escaped, he desperately wanted it back. But what in the world could stand up to its seemingly infinite psychic might? So he went to my late mistress, the new Executive of Science at the time fore the Mew clone had killed the former when it escaped, and asked her to create something powerful enough to combat the unsecured clone and either bring it back to him or destroy it if need be.
"My mistress accepted the challenge and immediately began work. She, too, was puzzled by what in the world would be that strong. Legendary Pokémon, she came to conclusion and so decided to start with the same Mew DNA that had spawned the clone in the first place. But if she just created another Mew clone, the two clones would probably then just get locked in an evenly-matched stalemate. So looking to the other legendaries of the world, she decided to combine Mew's DNA with another specimen's."
Taking a breath, the Eeveelution stopped in her reminiscent narration for a moment or two to allow Jet ample time to absorb and comprehend the story thus far. Once he nodded, she continued.
"For reasons even I am not sure of, my late mistress settled upon Articuno. Perhaps she thought that the bird's control over ice would be useful? Or perhaps she just was fond of the creature all together? Regardless of the reason, she soon found herself with failure after failure as the two DNAs would seem to fight and attempt to destroy one another, which led to the slow, painful deaths of many experiments. She needed something to act as a buffer between the Mew and Articuno DNAs, and thus looked to… … Human DNA to do that job.
"By now, it had been four years. Four years of never succeeding. But once the human DNA was introduced, the Mew DNA and the Articuno DNA ceased combat. The human DNA was like no-man's land that each one could invade individually to enhance…"
Struggling to keep up with the Espeon's quick speech, Jet shook his head and held up a hand to stop her from further explaining.
"Wait, wait. What? I didn't get that last part…"
Rolling her eyes as though he was an idiot for not understanding, Omi replied, "The Mew DNA could merge with the human DNA momentarily and give it some of its powers and abilities. Same with the Articuno DNA."
Still not fully comprehending the complexities of such genetics, the boy simply pretended he did and shrugged before allowing the feline to continue.
"Anyway, so my mistress finally found a stable mix of DNAs that, in theory, would give her creation an edge above its prey. And five years after first being commissioned, she finally began work on the creature itself.
"To simplify matters, she gave it a human body though allowed the two foreign DNAs to… Customized it, if you will… The Mew DNA made the creature female, despite how the human DNA had been taken from a male. And the Articuno DNA colored her hair a bright blue. It also would've made her eyes red, had my mistress not decided to use the creature's eye color as an indication of what DNA was in control of its body."
Closing her own violet eyes, Omi tilted her head back slightly and as if quoting someone, continued.
"Dark blue for the human, light blue for Mew, and red, naturally, for Articuno."
"If the Pokémon DNA could merge with the human DNA, then couldn't both of them merge with it at once?" To the teenager that seemed obvious. How was the creation—that was starting to sound eerily familiar—supposed to beat the Mew clone if it could only access one power at a time? Surely if it could wield both Articuno and Mew's powers at once, then it would easily be unstoppable!
Aggravated by the interruption, the psychic cat twitched her two-tipped tail.
"In theory, it probably could," She admitted. "But then the power of both legendaries combined could've easily overwhelmed the human DNA, and if anything happened to the human DNA, it would affect the legendary DNAs as well."
"Well that's dumb," Jet remarked with a frown. "If it could only use one power without knocking itself out, then why give it two powers at all?"
"In theory, I said," Omi replied testily. "Now can I continue?"
Narrowing his eyes at such sass, he reluctantly nodded, but added, "And hurry up. Just get to the point already. Gods, you talk too much."
Barely managing to keep her temper in check, the Sun Pokémon continued the story without retort.
"The creature she created was a young girl, around the age of ten. The Boss was getting impatient, but my late mistress could not spawn a creature at an older age, lest they run the risk of the creature turning out to be slower in the head than a Slowpoke. Since her creation looked like a normal person, my mistress decided to give her a name…
"Her family name would be 'Yumé', the family name of the human from whom she got her human DNA. But it was not until she discovered that her creation was as sweet and docile as any little girl, with eyes like a bright cyan rather than a dark blue or sky blue or red even, that my mistress gave her a first name…"
Cruelly, she trailed off for a moment and eyed the dragon trainer. He was staring intently at the cat, unaware that he was holding his breath. He knew the secret right away when he heard of the creature's last name, but for some reason found himself hoping he was mistaken and simply jumping to conclusions.
"You know, that was the name of the project, too," Omi suddenly stated, unfazed when Jet growled for the umpteenth time at her. Why did she have to stall and beat around the bush so much?!
"'Yumé'… It means 'Dream' in the language of my mistress's homeland… So they called the project 'Project Dream'…"
"That's nice and all, but the Mew, Articuno, human thing's name, please? What was it called?"
"She," The Espeon finally correctly. "Due to her sweet nature… Was given the name of 'Otomé'… Meaning 'Maiden'."
A/N: By Ho-Oh, Omi really does talk too much. - A- So to make up for that cat's blabbing, another chapter!